A couple of weeks ago, we held the Ringing Discovery Day at St Margaret’s, Rochester. The day was arranged to raise the public profile of ringing and enable members of the public to find out more about what we do and to have a go at ringing a bell.
As you are doubtlessly aware, the planning for this event has been going on for several months and I am extremely grateful to all of the ringers who volunteered their services on the day as it meant that we were able to engage with the visitors and show them many facets of ringing. We were also fortunate to be able to have the Frindsbury Handbell Ringers in attendance, allowing our visitors to see another aspect of bell ringing in action.
There was some coverage by Radio Kent before the day, and their reporter, Jo Burns, visited St Laurence in Thanet to talk to some of the ringers there and put together a report that went out a couple of times on the Friday and on the Saturday morning. My thanks go to Freda Parker, Felicity Lewis and Malcolm Barden for their help in arranging this. Additionally, I was interviewed on the Saturday morning about the events on the day.
We had a steady flow of visitors throughout the day, including Lauren Edwards, the local MP; Vince Maple, the Leader of Medway Council and Cllr Trevor Clarke and his wife, Mandy, the Mayor and Mayoress of Medway. The Mayor was particularly interested in the event, so much so that he was late leaving for his next appointment.
We had fifteen expressions of interest from people wanting to learn to ring as a result of this day and were able to offer a further session at Rochester Cathedral on Saturday 9th August where nine of these were able to attend. Further sessions have been arranged for these and there are some others who were unable to attend on the 9th who have signed up for these future sessions.
The role of the volunteer is gradually changing and there is now a greater responsibility of duty of care on the organisation that they volunteer with. As ringers, we are all volunteers and are able to use the bells at the church we ring with the permission of the incumbent. At the recent General Committee meeting, a set of First Aid guidelines were discussed and this will be made available shortly on the KCACR website.
We need to bear in mind that, as volunteers, we still have the right to be made aware of risks, to receive appropriate training for our role and expect reasonable first aid provision. The guidelines that will be published are not mandatory, however they do give an idea of what the ideal situation should be within a tower.
Perhaps it may be worth checking that you have a a first aid kit in your tower that is in date. It may also be worth checking whether any of the band have undertaken recent first-aid training. It is certainly possible that the Association could organise some basic first aid training for members if the demand is there.
The Committee also discussed the forthcoming call-change competition following a question from a member. The Committee felt that there was a value in this competition and it should continue. They also agreed that the rules should be the same as last year’s competition, i.e. with rules 1-4 suspended and the competition being open to all ringers, however, it was agreed that the rules would be revised prior to the 2026 competition.
The Committee were of the opinion that the competition did encourage better striking through the medium of call-change ringing and should be regarded in the same vein as the method competitions as a means of improving the standard of ringing. Indeed, the winning band last year produced an excellent performance with very few faults.
The Association 6-Bell Striking Competitions will be taking place on Saturday 27th September at St Margaret’s, Barming. The 6-Bell Method Ringing Competition will be taking place in the morning, with the draw at 9:45am. The 6-Bell Call-Change Competition will be taking place in the afternoon with the draw at 2:00pm. As with last year, this will be an open competition with a maximum of 10 teams able to participate and each team will need to ring 10 minutes of call-changes.
Whilst the Method Competition entries are determined by the Districts, please do consider taking part in the Call Change Competition.
Neil Jones
KCACR Chairman